Virgin Islands National Park

Virgin Islands National Park is located in the United States Virgin Islands and is comprised of the majority of Hassel Island, sixty percent of Saint John, and the waters surrounding these areas. The park contains 14,737 acres and was established in 1956 as America’s twenty-ninth national park. Its climate is subtropical and does not drastically vary between seasons. The temperatures are typically mild throughout the year and the park receives an average of fifty-five inches of rain per year.

Virgin Islands National Park receives about 500,000 visitors each year and is free for every visitor, except those visiting Trunk Bay, which has an entry fee of four U.S. dollars per adult. Trunk Bay is located on Saint John and holds a popular beach and bay. This area offers many amenities for visitors including showers, restrooms, a snack bar, and an underwater snorkeling trail. The park also features hiking trails like Cinnamon Bay Nature Trail, which holds ruins of sugar plantations, and Reef Bay Trail, the most popular trail in the park, which offers views of Taíno petroglyph rock carvings, forests, a waterfall, and snorkeling at Genti Bay. Visitors can view the coral reefs and underwater wildlife, which occur throughout the park’s waters. Visitors can camp in one of two campgrounds within the park, located in Cinnamon Bay and Maho Bay, at the Caneel Bay resort, or outside of the park in Saint John.